Lessons
by MillionMoments
Summary: Catherine realises something has shifted between Richard and her daughter. Richard/Camille UST.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Lessons

Rating: K+

Summary: Suddenly Catherine realises things are shifting between her daughter and Richard. Camille/Richard UST.

A/N: I am rather plagued by head canon, I have ideas that I am really certain must be true even though we have no evidence for it in the series. As a consequence they will keep popping up in my stories. The first is that Richard went to Cambridge University. Don't ask me why Cambridge and not Oxford, probably the influence of being from East Anglia and the fact Ben Miller went to Cambridge. One of my other head canon ideas is that Richard plays the piano. I figure he must have musical talent of some kind since he could detect a wrong note being played in series one episode seven. I can imagine him spending long hours at boarding school in the music practise room rather than outside. I apology for yet another story where I have him playing the instrument…

* * *

Catherine was attuned to her daughter's many tones of voice, she imagined most mothers could pick up on the moods of their children in such a way. When she heard Camille approaching, she was using her 'I'm trying to be patient but you are starting to annoy me just a bit' voice, which meant she must be with her boss. She popped into the kitchen to put the kettle on, it was that time of day.

When she returned, she saw Richard frowning at her daughter's old iPod touch, "This isn't like when you showed me how to get BBC iPlayer to work abroad is it? I mean, this is legal right?"

Her daughter sighed theatrically, "Yes, Richard, it's legal. It'll automatically download the podcasts from radio four when you're connected to Wi-Fi. And I maintain that if you'd paid for a TV licence then streaming the BBC from abroad would only be a little bit illegal."

"There's no such thing as a little bit illegal," he muttered grumpily, but then gave her a small smile that both she and her daughter knew was his way of saying thank you.

She passed the boys beer, her daughter a rum cocktail and asked the Inspector, who was still fiddling with the device, "I assume you want tea, Richard?"

"Yes please," he said without looking up. When he did, his attention was immediately drawn to the piano Catherine had spent a difficult morning trying to get set up in the corner of the bar.

"Gosh, is that a Boesendorfer 214?" he asked, walking over to it. Since it said Boesendorfer on the side Catherine could only assume he was right, she hadn't actually asked.

"I borrowed it from the school, since its shut for the summer. My cousin is coming and she sings and plays in Paris, she agreed to play here a little."

He was now looking at the instrument with something akin to sentimentality. "I learnt to play on a Boesendorfer," He said mildly, before walking away and sitting down to take his tea.

Fidel asked the question, as Dwayne really didn't care about anything but his beer at that moment and Catherine and Camille were busy staring at Richard like he'd just declared something far more shocking, "You can play, Sir?"

"Only a little," he told Fidel. The lack of expansion on the topic clearly indicated he didn't want to talk about it, but Catherine was delighted.

"Oh then you must play something for us, Richard!" she cried elatedly.

"Oh no, really I couldn't," he said, stirring the tea excessively and staring at the table.

"Why not?" Camille piped up, clearly also keen for a demonstration of his newly revealed talents.

"I haven't played in ages, so you know…" He shrank a little under the suspicious look Camille had levelled him with, and Catherine felt a little sorry for him. She didn't understand how he'd be quite happy to ramble on and reveal a murderer in front of a crowd but get all shy when asked to play the piano in a bar whose current occupants only consisted of his friends.

"Maybe just something small," she tried. "You know, and you could tell me if maybe the piano got out of tune when we moved it."

This seemed to abate his nerves a little, at least the poor tea cup wasn't being abused by the teaspoon anymore, "I don't think I can remember anything too complicated off by heart…" he said slowly, and she knew she was bringing him round.

Camille was looking at him expectantly, and that was the last bit of encouragement he needed. He sighed just as dramatically as Camille had earlier, put his cup down and went over to the instrument. Catherine leaned against the bar, she suspected Richard was more Chopin than _Der Flohwalzer_ or Chopsticks but she couldn't be certain what he'd come out with.

She certainly didn't expect him to make her cry. She didn't really have a valid excuse for why, a few minutes into a piece she did not recognise in the slightest but decided was her new favourite ever, she got a bit teary. If Richard thought that was being able to play 'a little', she wondered who he thought was actually good. She supposed she was just being sentimental, and more than a little amazed that a man who was so proper all the time could actually play with a passion that moved people. Even Dwayne had stopped drinking his beer in amazement.

The piece came to its natural conclusion, and Richard frowned at the keyboard, "It's in tune though this C# key is a bit sticky," he indicated. "I think one of the kids has spilt coke on it."

He looked up when he didn't get a reply, and the frown deepened, "What?"

Camille was just smiling, and Catherine was trying to find a compliment that wouldn't embarrass him. Dwayne was actually the first one to speak.

"Hey Chief, could you teach me how to play?"

"You want to learn to play the piano?" Richard asked incredulously.

"Women love guys who can play an instrument! If I could play like you I could have any woman on this island I wanted!"

Richard opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again before eventually just shaking his head and telling Dwayne, "I don't know how to respond to that."

When his gaze landed on her, his frown was back, and Catherine knew he'd spotted the tears, "Are you ok?" He asked, seemingly quite concerned. "I can fix the sticky key with a cloth, warm water and washing up liquid if you're worried…"

"No, Richard, I…" she hesitated, and settled with, "You play very well," before bustling off into the kitchen to prevent her instinct to hug him from overwhelming her.

When she'd stopped being an old, sentimental woman, she returned to the bar to find Camille had physically shoved Richard along the piano stool and was now perched on there with him, listening attentively to something he was explaining.

Dwayne and Fidel had sat on stools at the bar, apparently after another beer each. Dwayne was grumbling, "Oh so she can have a lesson!"

"Well it is quite cosy on that piano stool Dwayne, I think most men would rather share it with Camille than you," Fidel teased.

Dwayne grumbled into his beer, but was clearly entertained by the antics of his senior officers. Catherine was curious, "He's teaching her the piano?" she asked for confirmation.

Fidel and Dwayne shared a smirk, and Fidel then explained what Catherine had missed in the ten minutes she was gone, "She started badgering him the second you left. Something about couldn't he teach her something, because she'd always wanted to learn as a child but hadn't gotten the chance. He conceded, he knows when she isn't going to let something drop."

Catherine huffed, more than a little annoyed. "Never got the chance!" she said, glaring at her daughter – who was too engrossed in plucking out some melody on the keyboard to notice. "I had to work two jobs to save up enough money to send her for lessons when she was seven, and she quit after one month! Complained her teacher smelled like cabbage. And now she's all pity me, I didn't get to learn as a child! I should go over there and…"

"No!" cried both the boys, preventing her from actually finishing her sentence. They were half standing, as if they had both considered physically restraining her in order to prevent her interrupting the impromptu piano lesson occurring in the corner of _her _bar. She looked at them, one eyebrow raised. They both sank back on to their stools a little sheepish. They shared another look, and then came to the decision to share something with her.

"It's just, they've been getting on so much better since he got back from London," Fidel began to explain. "They still bicker but there's never any malice behind it."

"He's a lot more relaxed and our lives are easier because of it, so we'd appreciate it if you didn't do anything to jeopardise that!" Dwayne continued.

Catherine took a moment to observe her daughter and Richard, he did seem quite relaxed given Camille's proximity. Didn't he normally get flustered under such circumstances? And he was smiling to, and she was there grinning back and he was actually looking at her, not the floor.

"Do you think that they...?" She left the question unfinished, certain the boys would be able to fill in the blank. What she didn't expect was Fidel's vehement "No!" and Dwayne's nearly triumphant sounding "Defiantly!" This difference in opinion caused a brief staring match between the two men, but Dwayne backed down grumbling and allowed Fidel to answer.

"Though Dwayne thinks that Camille and the Inspector's relationship may now be…" Fidel paused, clearly searching for a delicate way to put the obvious. "Intimate, I don't think he'd break the rules like that. You know I think they'll have some difficult decisions to make in the future, which is another reason maybe we should let them have these moments. Before things get complicated."

Continuing her study of the two, Catherine couldn't help but agree with Fidel's conclusions. She could detect the longing in the way he watched her daughter as she pushed her hair out of her face and made another attempt at the piano scale he was teaching her. He had the look of a man who wanted something he couldn't have. Camille succeeded in completing three scales in a row correctly, and shot Richard one of her more dazzling smiles, which he couldn't help returning. Catherine's heart ached a little, she couldn't help but think this all might end in heartbreak. In which case Fidel was right, they should be allowed this time at the very least.

He was shutting the piano lid now, despite her daughter's protests, and the two of them joined them at the bar. "Are you sure you haven't played before?" Richard asked Camille, looking a little bothered.

"No, why?" She replied, though she shifted her weight nervously from one foot to the other. This was one of the tells Catherine had used when Camille had been a child. Her daughter shot her a sidelong glance, clearly trying to assess her mother's mood. Did she hope Catherine would have forgotten those piano lessons?

"Well, it's just most people when they start they hold their palms level with their fingers, you know, but you instinctively had them in the right position," he demonstrated this with a frown on his face, like he was trying to figure out a puzzle.

"Natural talent?" Camille tried, clearly desperate not to be caught out. Certainly desperate enough to shoot Catherine a quick pleading look that Catherine returned with a single raised eyebrow.

Richard considered this statement for a moment, then shrugged and said "Guess so."

Catherine smiled. Well if he was willing to accept that rubbish, he really must love her.

* * *

A/N: In my head, Richard was playing something by the composer Einaudi, perhaps Le Onde or Bella notte. If anyone picked something different in their head, please comment and let me know!


	2. Chapter 2

Lessons Chapter 2

A/N: There wasn't supposed to be a second chapter, but after a conversation with katedf this short little thing demanded to be written. I've only just gotten round to writing it though, work keeping me busy!

* * *

"Yes but how do I _unsubscribe_ from one of them?" He asked, clearly annoyed. Camille had just signed up to every podcast listed on the Radio Four website, after he'd spent an evening feeling a bit melancholy and homesick and complaining about things he missed. She didn't understand why he couldn't just delete the ones he wasn't interested in, why he had to unsubscribe, and she'd told him as much before explaining where he could subscribe to other podcasts more to his liking.

"Which one is it you object to so strongly that you must _unsubscribe_ then?" She asked curiously, as she took the device out of his hands and went to the relevant site.

"The Archers," he said, not expanding on why he disliked it so.

She looked up quickly, "But The Archers is amazing!"

He looked at her incredulously, "_You've _been listing to The Archers? Camille it's complete drivel."

"I listened to some of them when I was setting it up. I mean it's all this sex and scandal interwoven with dairy farming and trips to the pub!" She grinned. "It was by far the best thing I listened to. I mean I didn't understand a word of that I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue programme you seem to like so much."

"Well most of that is word play and puns so I can excuse that since English isn't your first language, but the liking The Archers thing, I may have to disown you," He told her, perfectly seriously.

She laughed, leading him across the bar and as she did so towards the piano. He seemed to cotton on and slowed down.

"You know, you could _pay_ to get lessons," he said, scowling.

"Well I'll do you a trade. I'll unsubscribe you from The Archers if you teach me something else. And no more scales! I want to learn something proper!"

"Scales are 'proper' as you so elegantly put it!" He seemed a little put out by her lack of appreciation for his previous lesson, which was not what she intended.

"Sorry, I meant I'd just like to be able to play something people could recognise that's all," she attempted to placate him.

"I haven't even taught you any chords yet! It'll be very difficult to pick something out that has no chords and where the fingering isn't too difficult…"

She couldn't help herself, she snorted with laughter. He gave her a confused look and asked "What?"

"Sorry it's just," now she couldn't hold back a giggle. "Fingering!"

He huffed and rolled his eyes, which only made her giggle harder. "Oh for goodness sake, Camille, you're being childish and, and smutty!"

She shouldn't laugh at how uncomfortable he was, she really shouldn't, but it _was_ funny. He sat at a table, apparently to wait out her sudden fit of hysterics. The laughing had gotten loud enough that it had attracted her mother's attention, who breezed over from the bar, collecting empties on the way.

"What is she laughing at?" Catherine was forced to ask Richard, since Camille was busy wiping tears from her eyes and trying to remember to draw breath when she could.

"Well she was blackmailing me into another piano lesson but apparently the word 'fingering' proved somehow overwhelming," he explained in a long-suffering tone.

Catherine let out a small little laugh herself, "Oh I'm afraid she inherited her filthy mind from me. I had exactly the same reaction when I went to pick her up from her lessons and her teacher told me how well her fingering was coming along." Camille abruptly stopped laughing. "Of course I could hardly explain to her as a child just what I found so funny!"

The she breezed off back to the bar, a small smile on her face. She knew what she'd done was a little bit evil, but she actually calculated it might work to shift things on just a little bit further.

Camille was left looking at Richard mutely, awaiting her fate. He was still contemplating her mother's _kind_ revelation, and she really wasn't sure how he would react.

"But you definitely said you'd never had lessons before, didn't you?" He asked, apparently willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Well I only had them for a month," she tried as an excuse. "And it was a long time ago, and, well yes I did." She admitted eventually. "But I thought it'd be nice to have you teach me something." She stared at the floor, embarrassed by being caught out.

"Well you could have just asked," he said, standing up and lifting the lid on the piano and sitting down. "Now I'm just going to use your little indiscretion to my advantage and say you have to learn by my rules. So, first off, chords. But delete that bloody subscription to The Archers first."

Camille did as she was told.


End file.
